Budget battle continues in Sacramento: Legislature approves cuts, GOP proposal has some environmental groups worried

◼ Budget battle continues in Sacramento: Legislature approves cuts, GOP proposal has some environmental groups worried Times-Standard

As the California Legislature continued to wrangle over budget bills Thursday, local officials were coming to terms with cuts enacted the day before.

As of the Times-Standard's deadline Thursday, little clarity was coming out of Sacramento, with proposed tax extensions, realignments of state services and the elimination of redevelopment agencies throughout the state still being hotly debated. What was clear is that cuts enacted Wednesday targeting state social services promise to have a dramatic impact on Humboldt County.

News trickling out of Republicans' negotiations with Gov. Jerry Brown regarding a compromise to get tax extensions before voters in a June special election also has some environmental groups on the North Coast concerned and some local developers keeping their fingers crossed.

Faced with a $26.6 billion deficit, the Legislature is in the midst of voting on a package of 36 bills, which, if enacted, would cut $12.5 billion in spending and put $12 billion of proposed tax and fee extensions before voters. The remaining $2 billion would be made up through a variety of internal loans, accounting maneuvers and fund shifts.

Back in Sacramento, at around 5 p.m. Thursday as the Senate passed one of the 36 budget bills on a strictly party-line vote and the Assembly was repeatedly derailed by partisan bickering and procedural arguments, Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, took a break to offer a statement to the Times-Standard.

”We have spent the last two days doing what needs to be done to save the state of California,” he said. “It is disappointing that so many of our Assembly Republican colleagues who keep saying they want to reduce the size of government are unwilling to join us in voting to make necessary cuts.”

State Assembly (Humboldt)
Wes Chesbro (D)
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0001
Phone: (916) 319-2001
Fax: (916) 319-2101
Eureka phone: 445-7014 Fax: 445-6607
Email: assemblymember.chesbro@assembly.ca.gov
Website: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a01/
http://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=AD01& (contact via webform)

Humboldt: (Also represents Del Norte and Trinity Counties.)
710 E Street, Suite 150
Eureka, CA 95501
Tel: (707) 445-7014 Fax: (707) 445-6607
Mendocino & Lake:
311 N. State Street
Ukiah, CA 95482
Tel: (707) 463-5770 Fax: (707) 463-5773
Sonoma:
50 "D" Street, Suite 450
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Tel: (707) 576-2526 Fax: (707) 576-2297

State Senate (Humboldt)
Noreen Evans
State Capitol Building
Room 4081
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4002
710 E St.
Eureka, CA 95501
Eureka phone: 445-6508 Fax: 445-6511
Website: http://sd02.senate.ca.gov/
Email: senator.evans@sen.ca.gov
http://sd02.senate.ca.gov/contact (contact via webform)